I want to begin agility

[Honey_Bear]

I want to begin agility with Honey. Not competition or anything. She's already 2, is it too late to train her? What should I start out with? How should I introduce her? How do I train me to train her? I don't know much about agility at all, so anything is welcomed. Also, where do I get agility stuff?

 

[dogsarebetter]

the steps would be

find a trainer
start obidence
the start the agility

you go to the agility tainers house weekly and use there equipment, and let the trainer train you and honey

 

[Snark]

It's not too late - I didn't start my first dog in agility until she was over five years old (she competed until she was 12 and played on the agility equipment until arthritis at 16 put an end to it.) If your dog has a basic grasp of obedience (you want to be able to have the dog sit or lay down and stay where you leave them, and a good recall is important, too), then either find an agility trainer or an agility club (most offer lessons to their members).

I'd look for a trainer that uses positive methods. Agility is supposed to be fun for your dog, and amazing as it may sound - there are still some people who think agility training with a shock collar is a good idea. *gasp!*

You can look up clubs on the internet through various agility organizations: NADAC (North American Dog Agility Council), USDAA (U.S. Dog Agility Assoc.), AKC, UKC, CPA (Canine Performance Association).

Some equipment you can make: jumps, weave poles... Other equipment you can buy: teeter base, dog walk base (you supply the boards), tunnels, etc. I would hold off on the home equipment until you learn the basics from a trainer - it's too easy to overface your dog and scare them, or inadvertantly hurt them if you don't know what you're doing.

 

[Lizmo]

the steps would be

find a trainer
start obidence
the start the agility

I agree!

 

[~Tucker&Me~]

Ditto Snark!

It's VERY easy to make a mistake that will put your dog off agility for a long time!

Contact a trainer and join a club .

~Tucker

 

[AgilityPup]

the steps would be

find a trainer
start obidence
the start the agility

you go to the agility tainers house weekly and use there equipment, and let the trainer train you and honey

I agree with that, but obidence isnt a main nessecity, Zoey couldnt really evne walk on the leash right when I started her, and shes doing GREAT right now But I dont tink it would hurt!!

 

[Honey_Bear]

I'm gonna start looking for a club and everything soon. She is GREAT at obedience (especially when you have treats LOL!) and will do almost anything to please me. Whenever I walk outside, I did shake with her, and now I think she knows it means "Hello" cuz lots of times when someone comes over, she'll run up to them, sit down, and hold her paw up for them to shake. LOL!

 

[Dulce Pit Bull]

I wouldn't call that obedience. Take her to training classes, and then start agility.

You can make/buy your own equipment if you want to practice at home.

Training is for sure the first step.

 

[girlbuffalo1]

our kennel

Our kennel club requires the basic obedience class before even allowing you to take agility--it seemed silly to us as Wrigley knows lay, sit, stay, ect--and now we are having to teach him all over again with new hand signals and commands.......but I really want him to try agility.

 

[Honey_Bear]

She knows sit, shake, down, bang, roll over, stay, come, take it, leave it, jump, crawl

 

[RD]

Come, down and stay are the commands I use the most often in agility. I would make sure Honey is very reliable (in a very distracting environment, too - my dog made an ass of us both on our first couple times out, because he wasn't used to working in such an intense environment) with those commands before joining an agility club or taking classes.

 

[BostonBanker]

Come, down and stay are the commands I use the most often in agility. I would make sure Honey is very reliable

Exactly what RD said. Those are the big three for me, along with targeting my hand with her nose. I would especially work with the 'come'. I've found, at least around here, that agility is often composed of a lot of dogs who have some "issue" (Meg is one of them). It is a great way of exercising your dog, both mentally and physically, without having to have them interact with other dogs. Because you will eventually hope to be able to work with Honey off-leash (a lot of the real early basics can be done on-leash), you want to make sure you can always keep her away from the other dogs.

Dogs can get very excited at agility once they start to understand what is going on, and they tend to feed off each other. You want to be sure you can call your dog back to you no matter how wired she is.

Oh, and another command I use almost constantly in classes is "watch me". Meg gets pretty pumped, and will start barking at other dogs while they are running if I leave her to her own devices. If I see her starting to focus on a dog, I will have her hold eye contact with me for a few seconds at a time while the other dog runs past.

Good luck - agility is a blast!

 

[Dulce Pit Bull]

She knows sit, shake, down, bang, roll over, stay, come, take it, leave it, jump, crawl

Again, that's not obedience, those are tricks.

Basic obedience consists of:

-a solid recall
-down stay (down)
-sit stay (sit)
-Heel

Those are the BASIC basics. But I'm in Advanced, so it might be a little different, :lol-sign:

In bold, are the basics that you said you already have down. Jump/crawl are commans that CAN be used for Agility.

I use: "Climb" "Through" "Crawl" "Shoot!"

 

[BostonBanker]

Again, that's not obedience, those are tricks.

Oh, it's all tricks anyway Even the "official" obedience stuff.

 

[PAWZ]

To be honest I have not done formal obed with any of my agility pups. All recalls, downs, sits and stays are taught at home by me. Having a strong heel CAN (but not in every case) cause problems as the dog can be come confused with you are handling on your offside. Two years old is a fine age to start, I didnt start my first guy until he was 3 and he just retired at age 13.
You might look at a website called Cleanrun.com to help you locate a club in your area. Most clubs offer a basic obed class before you start agility training, at least here in the Mid Atlantic area they do. I must warn you though agility is habit forming and although you say no competition now, theres nothing like stepping to the line with your partner for the 1st, 150th, or 1500th time. There are several good yahoo groups for agility too and cleanrun hosts one of them.